CLINTON OFFERS TO SPUR MIDEAST ECONOMIC GROWTH

Hours after celebrating the formal peace between Israel and Jordan, President Clinton outlined a plan Wednesday night to promote economic development across the Middle East. But he coupled it with a warning that violence could still tear the region asunder.

To a joint session of the Jordanian parliament, Clinton served notice of the mixed optimism and apprehension with which his administration is looking beyond the historic accord.

As he prepared to travel today to Syria, which has not agreed yet to peace terms with Israel, Clinton spoke of the stark choices he said the region still faces.

"It is the age-old struggle between fear and hope," Clinton said.

With King Hussein sitting behind him and the members of parliament and guests packed into the circular chamber, he praised Jordan for its "bold choice" but said all of the region must remain on guard against "those who preach hate and terror."

As the first U.S. president to address the Jordanian body, Clinton used his address to issue strong pledges of support for the country and its quest for peace.

Clinton said the United States would take a leading role in establishing a Middle East Development Bank to finance projects in the region and said the Overseas Development Investment Corp. would provide $75 million to promote private investment, nearly all of it in Jordan.

"Today, let me say, on behalf of the United States: I will not let you down," Clinton said to applause from Hussein and other Jordanians.

But on a day that took him from Cairo to the Israeli-Jordanian border and then to this ancient capital, he also spoke out against the danger that violence rather than prosperity could yet come to color the region's future.

The president met Wednesday morning in Cairo with Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and he later said he was satisfied that Arafat was doing all he could do to fight terrorist strikes by the group Hamas.

The Palestinian organization has claimed responsibility for last week's bus bombing in Tel Aviv and other attacks.

Clinton made plain that the United States would be satisfied with nothing less than an all-out effort.

His aides said Clinton would carry that message with him to Damascus today for talks with President Hafez Assad of Syria, which remains on the State Department's list of states that sponsor terrorism.

"Once you become a partner in the peace process, you have to fight for peace," Clinton said in summarizing what he said he had told Arafat during their private meeting in the Qebba Palace in Cairo, where President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was their host. "And those who seek to undermine it are seeking to undermine you."

Apart from a brief picture-taking session, Clinton chose not to appear with Arafat in public.

Aides said that decision reflected a view that, on a journey to celebrate peace, it was not yet time to accord the Palestinian leader a public embrace.